


Like x A x Glove

by Drakey



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Assassins, Gen, Killua's Family Being Shitty, M/M, Soulmates, Transgendered Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-26 06:09:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14994506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drakey/pseuds/Drakey
Summary: Gon Meets his soulmate on the boat to the Hunter Exam, a blond-haired, grey-eyed boy five years his senior who is on a mission of revenge.Kurapika meets his soulmate after a stop at some nowhere island with a funny name, a bright, energetic boy too young for him who is too curious for the world and too happy for what it might do to him.Killua is certain he will never meet his soulmate, because he is certain he will only ever be allowed to touch other assassins, but that is a sacrifice he chooses to make for his sister.





	1. Green x Stripes x and x Red x Feathers

Lightly tanned fingers brush across the top of Kurapika's book. He glances up into the face of a boy, perhaps twelve years old, with bright brown eyes and a wide smile and hair that is _absolutely ridiculous,_ which is a little sad because the kid is cute, in a way that Kurapika is certain will grow into genuine good looks in a couple of years, and here he's saddled himself with this awful fucking hair. A fishing pole sticks up behind the kid, with a red bobber and a trefoil hook and a lot of obvious wear and tear. 

He speaks, in a voice brighter than his eyes. "Hi! I'm Gon!" 

Kurapika already knows this, as Gon has been going from person to person, introducing himself and offering handshakes. Clearly, Gon has not yet had cynicism poured down his throat by the world in general. He shakes hands with everyone eagerly and consideringly, as though a soultouch is likely to happen to him, and as though it is likely to happen on a passenger ship full of people going to the Hunter Exam. 

Kurapika can't help smiling at this behavior, though. He reaches up to shake the kid's hand. After all, it would be mean to tell him that everyone else is here to take the Exam and he isn't about to soultouch with a future Hunter, not to mention it's almost impossible to meet your soulmate while traveling unless you're an established jetsetter. It will just be a quick handshake and a couple of polite words. It's annoying, but he'll be okay.

Kurapika is not expecting the wave of icy cold that sweeps across his body. Gon stiffens in surprise and shudders a little, a light blush creeping into his face as his eyes begin to ask "now what?" in a way that makes it clear he never actually expected this.

That makes two of them.

What Kurapika is going to do with this, he thinks as a high heat begins to flush his face and his back starts to itch abominably, he has no idea, but Gon is clearly more interesting than he thought. "Kurapika Kurta," Kurapika says, because it's probably wise to introduce himself to his soulmate.

Gon's blush has already deepened to a ruddy fever-glow, the upcoming backlash of the soultouch and transformation fever beginning to really show. "Gon Freecss," he says. Then he passes out.

Kurapika follows a few moments later.

+----+

His father's hair glints in the light, reflective silver strands reflecting the deep metallic glint of his skin. As usual, Silva Zoldyck is a god carved out of chromium. But for now, he is a smiling god, amusement in his eyes as he listens to Illumi berate his younger brother. When Illumi finally trails off, Silva turns towards Killua and raises one perfect eyebrow. He looks like the cover of a romance novel. It's not what an assassin should look like, which is probably the point.

Killua turns to Illumi and pointedly rolls his eyes. "All I want is a little bit of freedom. Let me choose my own contracts. The Misiik Family does it. That and letting Alluka live with me isn't really that hard."

"You're twelve years old, Kil," Illumi begins, but Silva waves his hand to silence his eldest. 

"This is a fine show of initiative. You'll get your wish, Killua. In exchange, you must agree to my wishes." When Killua nods, his father goes on. "First, you will train with me to learn the power of Nen." Killua opens his mouth to ask what Nen is, but he is interrupted again. "Second, you will begin to search for your soulmate more actively. You will meet other assassins and work with them whenever your contract allows. You will seek out a soultouch. Illumi, Milluki, and Alluka, and Kalluto are all unlikely to find a soulmate. I will not have gone to the effort of seeking out your mother only to have my children all fail to carry on the family gift."

"Alluka wouldn't be-" Killua begins, but Silva waves him off.

"Alluka is dangerous. I don't really care what you do with your brother or if you call him a girl like he insists, but keep him away from people, Killua. I don't know where that... power of his came from, but it will not be allowed to interfere with our family. At the first hint of treachery he returns to the vault." Silva shakes his head. "The point, Killua, is that you must make every effort to find at least one soulmate, and to have children with her. You are the only one of my children that I trust to have the sort of heart that can have a soulmate in the first place. The Zoldyck Gift will be carried on."

He speaks as though he can force a matter of fate, or destiny. 

One in ten. Only one in ten will meet their soulmate. You can improve that number by going looking, by living life to the fullest and seizing every moment for passion's sake, but it's a miracle that the astonishing Soulgift of Hama Zoldyck has been passed on for this long. So long as one of them has children with his soulmate (or her soulmate, in Alluka's case), those children will gain the Soulgift of the Zoldyck line when they meet their own soulmate.

Killua wants no part of it, but for his sister, to give her time with the one person she can truly trust, he'll make the sacrifice.

+----+

When Gon wakes from his fever, the ship is rocking. It's actually kind of fun, he thinks, although there is a smell like someone has been sick very nearby, and the creaking and crashing of waves is nearly deafening. He sits up to look around for who has been sick, hoping idly that it isn't Kurapika. He stands up and holds to his feet as others groan and grumble around him. He sniffs again. The smell is mixed with other smells, and with a start, he recognizes the odor of _steel,_ which he has known for years but which never wafts far enough from cool metal to be picked up from more than a few inches away. Another few judicious sniffs as his eyes slip closed tell him... More than they should.

He knows, for example, that there are thirty-one people in this room, that they are all underfed and three of them have thrown up on themselves in the last day or so. He knows their clothes were cleaned off as well as they could be, but weren't laundered. He knows the rain is still heavy and the wind is blowing still from the direction of Whale Island. 

He listens, and he hears no less than a dozen conversations, including the captain scolding someone and someone grumbling to himself not far away (probably Leorio, who he met and was privately relieved not to have Soultouched with) and especially the voice he was hoping for in the first place: Kurapika.

He concentrates. 

"I just want to know where he is. We can worry about the Gift later." Kurapika sounds annoyed. Gon looks for the door and finds it, heading out over the rolling deck down a long hall. The ship is large, but Kurapika must have been in the next room over. He opens a door, and frowns when the other side is an empty storage room. He doesn't find Kurapika until he is two decks up and clear at the other end of the ship.

His soulmate has changed more than Gon expected. He's come to grips with the idea that his own senses have gone into overdrive, that what was sharp and powerful to the limits of human ability is now utterly superhuman. He has caught his own reflection in a mirror and been surprised by the fact that he is now tiger-striped in bands of cool jungle green. He is not expecting the sight of Kurapika, shirtless, his skin covered in red marks that radiate from his eyes and his back sporting wings, bright red, damp with sweat, and big enough that Kurapika can probably fly with them if it ever stops storming out. Gon freezes as a man in a doctor's outfit looks between him and Kurapika. 

Then he sprints across the room and throws himself into Kurapika's arms. "I can't believe I found you!" he yells, and Kurapika splutters, holding him out at arm's length. "I'm so lucky, and I bet you're really cool, and guess what, my senses got way better, and..." he frowns, taking a deep sniff. This is a smell he's only noticed on himself before. "You smell embarrassed."

"Wow, your senses really did get better," the doctor says.

Kurapika blushes and sits down on a little bed. It is clearly where he has been for a while, and it smells of stale sweat and antiseptic and blood and something else Gon can't identify. "How old are you?" Kurapika asks.

"Twelve," Gon tells him. "And I already have a soulmate!" He beams a mile wide at that. "How old are you?"

Kurapika sighs. "Seventeen. You and I... we're not dating. You know that, right?"

Gon sticks his tongue out in concentration. He can _taste_ Kurapika's sweat in the air. "I don't see why not. I've been on plenty of dates before."

"You are too young for me," Kurapika says.

"No I'm not," Gon replies. "I went on dates with ladies who were much older than you." Kurapika looks at him like he's grown an extra head. "What are you worried about, Kurapika? It's not like we can mess it up. We're soulmates."

Kurapika blushes more and stammers out, "people are going to think I'm... you know, that you and I are... I mean that we can't... you're not old enough to..." he turns even redder.

Gon rolls his eyes. "Oh! Sex! I thought you had some other problem. Don't worry, I know I'm not big enough for that. The man who owns the game shop on Whale Island met his soulmate when he was six and she was eighteen. We can do that when we're both ready."

Kurapika's eyes bug out at Gon's reassurance. "You're crazy."

"Nah," Gon says. "My aunt Mito says I'm just really focused." He sits next to Kurapika. "So why are you taking the Hunter Exam?"

Kurapika sighs, then he looks at the doctor. The doctor leaves, and Kurapika begins to explain. "You don't want to be my soulmate. I'm after revenge."

Gon rolls his eyes. "You can't decide to not be someone's soulmate," he says. "It doesn't matter if I want to be or not. I am, so we're stuck that way. If you need to get revenge, I'll help you get revenge. Who do you want revenge on?"

Kurapika leans back and flinches, giving a sour look to his new wings. "The Phantom Troupe. They killed my whole family. All of my people. Killed them for their eyes. My people, when we're very angry, our eyes turn..." He closes his eyes and then turns towards Gon. 

The red of his wings is shockingly beautiful, so much that Gon wants to admire them for days on end. It is less brilliant and particolored on his skin, but his eyes, normally the same grey as the sea after a storm, are now reflecting that crimson more beautifully and with a bottomless depth. Gon gasps, and he reaches out to touch, gently, the side of Kurapika's face. "But you're sad, not angry."

"I'm both," Kurapika says.

"Then we'll get the Phantom Troupe," Gon replies.

Kurapika's eyes fade away from their red back into the settling seas they normally reflect. This, too, is beautiful, and Gon frowns. "If they only wanted the red, they were pretty stupid anyway. Your eyes are beautiful both ways. I bet all your people were that way."

Kurapika's eyes begin to water, and he pulls Gon suddenly into an embrace. It lasts for a while, and when he finally withdraws, he sniffles and asks, "Why are you taking the Hunter Exam?"


	2. Dead x Spiders x and x Date x Nights

Leorio stares at Kurapika as though he has just confessed to something incredibly obvious, like needing to drink water to survive. Kurapika believes this is an unfair reaction, but he does not castigate his friend for his inconsiderate attitude. Instead, he glances over to make sure that Gon cannot hear their conversation. His soulmate is sitting on the sofa, a pair of noise-canceling headphones connected to a game he is playing on Leorio's TV. 

"Kurapika, you're supposed to love him. That's how soulmates work." Leorio plunges his hand into his table, and through a portal into his fridge to retrieve a beer for himself and for Kurapika. 

"I know that, Leorio, but he's... he's _fifteen,"_ Kurapika hisses. "I feel like a pervert, thinking about him that way."

Leorio glances over at Gon and smiles. "I dunno, I've seen the way he looks at you. I bet he thinks about you that way once or twice a day. You know, when he can get some privacy."

Kurapika feels his face turning as red as his wings. Leorio smirks, and Kurapika considers throwing him out the window. He recalls his time in Greed Island, stuck in that awful City of Love place with Gon dragging him around to every stupid attraction and telling everyone they were soulmates, just to hear the salacious comments of the NPCs. "Leorio, that isn't helping," he growls. "I am trying to resist the urge to-"

"To do what you both want?" Leorio snaps. "I appreciate how concerned you are, but you know the psychology. I know you do. You are talking about your _soulmate,_ not some random kid! If he was just some kid, yeah, that'd be creepy, but soulmates are supposed to feel this way about each other. You can't hurt deliberately him any more than he can hurt you. You might screw this up by being too shy about it, though. I'm not telling you to go suck his cock, but for fuck's sake, Pika, acknowledge him as a person. You got to meet your soulmate young and see him grow up, but you have to let him know that you're _seeing_ him grow up!"

Kurapika looks back at Gon. He is... he is growing up to be beautiful. He has always been attractive, whether it was the absolutely adorable baby pictures Mito showed him over Gon's protests, or that first glimpse of him on the boat, with the ridiculous hair, or the moment that made Kurapika realize he had fallen in love, as Gon charged in to his rescue against the black market gang that had turned out to be powerful enough to capture him. Right now, Gon is all concentration, tongue poking out of his lips as he leans with the racing game on the screen. His hair is tamed today, though not so much as to have a part. His dark green stripes complement his dyed hair and the green pallete he has always preferred. His jacket is lying discarded on Leorio's couch, and he has thrown his perfectly good t-shirt, which Kurapika bought specifically as a gift for him during their trip to the Blood Coast, in the corner as though it is somehow offensive to him. 

Which Kurapika knows that it is. It's nothing against him, or even the shirt: it's just that Gon had trouble ignoring input long before his senses all got dialed past normal human limits, and he can't ignore things like seams and collars without really focusing. He lets his striped skin air out more to feel like he's not about to crawl out of it than anything else. He certainly isn't thinking of rejecting Kurapika's gift or trying to tempt him with exposed flesh. It's the furthest thing from his mind right now, Kurapika is sure. Gon is essentially selfish, simply because he is always in the present. He does not think of how the future will turn out, and he does not think to influence the future with anything but direct requests or pointed action. It is a fact Kurapika has learned to appreciate, because Gon keeps him in the present as much as Kurapika drags Gon out of it. He is sure it has saved his sanity more than once.

"Pika, you're completely lovestruck," Leorio says, and Kurapika jumps, the beer in his hand sloshing a little. "Offer to take him on a date."

"That's a good idea," Gon pipes up from the living room. Kurapika's head thuds to the table. "I mean, I can see you staring at me. Your reflection is in the window." He jerks his head toward the window just beyond the TV. "Also, these headphones aren't as good as your old pair, Leorio. I can hear the pizza guy pulling up downstairs. The bell is gonna ring soon. So where are we going on our date, Kurapika?"

+----+

Illumi hands Killua a new pair of thick, long leather gloves. He has done this once a year since Killua demanded to choose his own contracts. He glares at him, as he has every birthday, and he sniffs haughtily and turns away.

The gloves are traditional. Most assassins insist upon touching their target before they kill, to avoid accidentally killing a soulmate. Part of the high price charged by the Zoldycks is because they deliberately avoid this. If your assassin never touches your victim, they cannot discover an inconvenient connection to them and turn against you. It has happened once every hundred years or so for as long as assassins have existed. The price of doing business usually includes the remote possibility that your killer will return with the target alive and put a blade into your throat. The Zoldycks forfeit any chance of finding a soulmate they have been commissioned to kill, and so may charge exhorbitant prices.

Killua pulls on the gloves and opens the car door. Illumi has been furious since Killua removed the needle in his forehead last year. The glaring was more pointed this time, closer to being openly hostile. Killua steps away from the car while Illumi drives away. It is raining softly in the chill night here in Yorknew City. A man with a massive price on his head is waiting for Killua in the penthouse. He suspects this man will be expecting an assassin, but he has never encountered one like Killua.

The hotel clerk eyes Killua suspiciously, gaze fixed on his gloves. Wearing gloves is a sign of extreme antisocial tendencies in this country, which is a place of casually affectionate touches between complete strangers. Killua ignores the clerk and boards the elevator, riding to the top. This death needn't be dealt with stealth and subtlety. Chrollo Lucilfer is a criminal who has angered too many. His Spiders are hunted by some terrible force, and he is one of the last. Killua has been hired by a government, to do what its police and military cannot.

The elevator reaches the penthouse and Killua steps out. Lucilfer is waiting for him, leaning against the wall. He launches himself the instant Killua is in range, and the movement is so sudden that Killua is carried into the back wall of the elevator, caught completely off guard. Chrollo's hands are around his throat, and he twitches in surprise. This is the first time a target has ever touched him. Dark eyes bore into his, and he twists to try to push the man off, but Lucilfer is incredibly strong. Killua cannot break his grip by brute strength.

No sensation has crossed his body or burned into his skin. Chrollo is not his soulmate, and for a bare instant he is disappointed not to be half of the story where an assassin helps his target to survive. For a moment, Killua imagines running away with this stranger, even though the man is far too much his senior. A deep ache settles in his gut as Chrollo tries to strangle the life out of him. Killua rolls his eyes and switches tactics, his aura snapping into violent, electric life. Chrollo's hands spasm tighter as the current runs through him, and Killua reaches up to wrench him off, maintaining two points of contact at all times. He has learned the flow and power of electricity. He is a bolt of lightning, a strike from the gods, a stroke of vengeance. He bears his target to the floor and dumps more raw power into him, running his electric aura across Chrollo's heart. It takes a hundred thousandth of what Killua has thrown across Chrollo's heart to kill an average man. His aura, in electric form, is nearly impossible to adequately defend against the way he has refined it. Chrollo has taken more than anyone else he has ever killed in this way, but there is no defeating Killua. He calmly runs the current higher until Chrollo is dead, and the loss of his aura lets his body submit to the power being slammed into it.

The corpse bursts into flames. The whole thing has taken less than five seconds. Killua pours more power into the body, now raw aura, and destroys it completely. A few twisted trinkets fall to the ground in the pile of dust that was once Chrollo Lucilfer. Killua ignores them and takes the elevator back down. On the way, he calls his client to tell them the good news, and he tries not to think about the way his heart pulses with emptiness. 

Silva has tried for years to see his son paired off with a soulmate. The thrumming disappointment only grows worse when Killua realizes he was more excited by the prospect of Chrollo being his soulmate than by the idea of Soultouching with any of the girls, or even the boys, that Silva has introduced him to.

+----+

Kurapika pulls his tie off and flops facefirst onto the bed in their hotel room. His wings tuck in close to his body, and he mumbles indistinctly into the bedspread. There are no words in what he mumbles, because Gon would hear them if there were. He has had three years of hearing everything that happens.

"Lucilfer is dead," Kurapika says eventually, turning his head to one side while his tie slides out of slowly loosening fingers onto the floor. Gon climbs up onto the bed and starts undoing the snaps at the top of Kurapika's button-up. They are lucky they can afford the modifications that let Kurapika wear shirts, but he wishes Kurapika would just go shirtless more. The wings are an excellent excuse, and he enjoys seeing it when Kurap-ika does.

"Cool," Gon says. "Did that assassin kill him in Yorknew?"

Kurapika nods. Gon pulls him up, manhandling him into a sitting position and coming around in front of him to undo the buttons on the front of his shirt and get the dumb thing off of him. "The mayor of Yorknew called to tell me while I was meeting with the Hunters' Council. The Chairwoman wasn't pleased."

Gon massages Kurapika's bare shoulders, climbing around behind him again. He wants very badly to kiss the other man, but he knows how conflicted Kurapika is about the whole thing. His soulmate has a rigid moral compass that frequently gets stuck on social hangups, and has not really brought himself around, even after a few months of official, real, honest-to-goodness dates, to the idea that it is okay for his feelings about Gon to change from the way they were before to what they are becoming. This is okay. Mito pulled him aside when he brought Kurapika to meet her and told him that the biggest thing to remember when you meet your soulmate while you're both young is delayed gratification. Gon knows that soon, Kurapika will grow comfortable enough to recognize that it's okay to love him.

Kurapika relaxes under his grip. "You are beautiful, Gon. This is exactly what I needed."

"I know the Zodiacs make you tense," Gon says. 

Kurapika reaches up and catches the back of Gon's hand. Gon stops, and when Kurapika turns to meet his eyes, red feathers brush across Gon's wrist. Kurapika's wings flare and adjust as he turns, and he closes his eyes with a soft sigh. When he opens them, they are slowly beginning to glow in gorgeous reds. "I know you do," Kurapika says. "I know how much you care about me." The glow in his eyes fades in and out slowly, and Gon waits with bated breath. He has seen this before. Kurapika knows by now that it is not merely anger, but rather passion, that makes his eyes turn to rubies. 

They wait there, spellbound by the tension of the moment, until Gon decides that he must move, that Kurapika won't. He hooks an arm behind Kurapika's head and pulls him close to kiss him. He has waited and waited, and now Kurapika is hovering, indecisive, and Gon will no longer allow it. Their lips press together and Gon resists the urge to do all the things he has seen in movies and in pornography and on street corners and in cafes. Instead, he keeps his lips pressed together and simply holds Kurapika close.

When he lets go, Kurapika backs away and his entire face is red, not just the parts that are normally marked by his Soulgift. His eyes are aglow, and he squeezes them shut. The blush fades slowly, but when Kurapika opens his eyes again, they are still red. "Our pants are staying on," he says firmly.

"This time," Gon tells him.

Kurapika nods. "As many times," he begins, but Gon presses two fingers gently to his lips.

"As many times as you need. I know, Kurapika. I know I'm kinda slow, but you're the planner and you know what's best for the future. I trust you, right? That means I trust you about everything. If you say it's too early, it's too early. Just... one thing?"

Kurapika nods, but Gon doesn't release his lips. Instead he goes on, "No later than my seventeenth birthday?"

When Kurapika nods again, Gon smiles and pulls him in to kiss him again.

Things stay relatively chaste that night. It is frustrating, but Gon reflects, after he has taken a shower and worked out his frustration in the privacy of the bathroom, it is worthwhile. Kurapika is, after all, his soulmate. A soulmate is meant to be someone so compatible that your very souls resonate together, but they are also meant to be your complement. Some people think that this means a soulmate must be weak where you are strong, but Gon knows that people are complicated. He dries his hair and does not bother to style it. Instead, he hangs up the towel-Kurapika hates when he leaves towels on the floor, and he wants to show that he is mature enough to be trusted with this kind of intimacy. Not leaving a wet towel on the floor will help. 

What Gon's soulmate does is to ground him. He knows that he would float up into the clouds without Kurapika. His head has always been there, when he searches for Ging and when he thinks about what it will be like to be with Kurapika forever. When Gon opens the door and sees Kurapika, stripped to pajama pants, sleeping on his stomach, scarlet wings draped over more than three quarters of the bed, he smiles. He has loved Kurapika from the moment their hands touched. He knows that Kurapika has loved him for just as long, but this is a new kind of love, and it is thrilling and frightening, and he climbs into bed with his soulmate, lifting his right wing up and then letting it drape back over him as he cuddles up, wrapping both arms around Kurapika.

He thought convincing Kurapika to get them single-bed rooms was a victory, and he would have been happy with just that and the dates for months more, but this is even better. Kurapika keeps Gon from floating away or getting so distracted he cannot reach his goals. Gon knows that he keeps Kurapika from diving too deep into the past or the future. He has heard Kurapika tell others as much. But right now, Kurapika cannot possibly keep Gon from floating away. He is soaring into a future spent with his love.

It will be beautiful. They'll finish getting rid of the Spiders, and they'll be bounty hunters together, and they'll gather the Kurta Clan's eyes and give them a proper burial, and they'll... they'll help everyone. 

Gon has the power to punish criminals, and that's what he'll achieve as a Hunter.


	3. Hippocratic x Oaths x and x Terrible x Fathers

Kurapika spots, far below, the target. He has learned by now not to move his arms except to adjust his trajectory. Instead, the headset inside his helmet crackles to life when he speaks his soulmate's name.

"He's northwest of you, thirty blocks. I'm going up above the clouds for a minute."

Gon's voice comes back, staticky and distant. "Got it. I'm on him, okay?"

Kurapika smiles softly at the tone in Gon's voice. They have not yet made love to each other, but it seems to get closer every time they have a real date. Gon speaks to him with more caring concern than he used to, less confident obediance. He really is becoming less Kurapika's dependant and more his partner. Clouds brush over Kurapika's wings in a soft wetness as he slips into them, his vision slowly obscured by the mist. It seems as though they are solid things, objects, when you see them from the ground or pass into them in an airship, but out in the open, traveling slowly as Kurapika does, they are a fog that rolls in with surprising rapidity. A cloud is a change in conditions rather than a physical object. The cool mist rushes across his body, fogging his visor. He climbs, stretching his wings as he ascends. The air up here is too thin, and without nen he could not get more than a few hundred feet up. 

Kurapika revels in the sensation of flight. It is freedom. It is power. The wind whips at the control planes he keeps on his boots for flight, and he adjusts in all sorts of little ways. Without nen, he would glide and hop. With it, he soars. He passes through the top of the cloud, looking through his fogged visor as he continues to climb until he can, very carefully, wipe off the visor with one gloved hand. He looks around at the clouscape once he has stabilized. A thunderstorm is brewing to the west, but won't affect him any time soon. 

Gon's voice comes through again. "I can see him now. Are you coming down?"

"Aren't I always?" Kurapika asks. "Did you find out if he has backup?"

"A couple of thugs. I think I'll have to take one of them out."

"I'm diving now," Kurapika says, folding in his wings and dropping like a stone. This time, his passage through the cloud is quick and shocking, and he wipes his visor and reacquires his target almost instantly. Gon is just starting to move when Kurapika comes through. He is a blur of green, all jungle hoodie and lime shorts. One thug starts to move in response to Kurapika, but Gon hits him before he can do more than begin to realize what is happening. The man's head twists around, a physical killing blow rather than the burst of nen that might have informed Feitan he was a target.

Kurapika stays on target while Gon goes after the other thug. That man is beginning to move, but Kurapika has already sent out his chains, and he strikes Feitan hard, flaring out his wings just fifty feet up and not slowing his fall any more than he must to hit Feitan hard feetfirst. 

The kill is nearly instantaneous. It is easier than fighting Uvogin was, a tuck and a roll and a merciless death, if a particularly swift one.

The second thug flies past Kurapika before Feitan's corpse has hit the ground. Speed and an overwhelming first strike are the only way to win a fight with the Spiders now. They are wary of being attacked. Only one of the original attackers remains, the ones who were responsible for the deaths of Kurapika's family, but there are at least four Spiders total right now. The thug hits a wall and Gon stops next to Kurapika.

Kurapika smirks at Gon. "Did you have to hit the second one?"

Gon shrugs. "He looked up. We don't know for sure how fast Feitan was."

Kurapika kisses him gently and turns to look at where the second thug hit the wall. The man has clearly not survived the throw. Gon is already pulling out his Hunter license for the upcoming police presence, but by now this is routine. They keep collateral damge down and so the authorities are tolerant in most places. 

Sirens start up somewhere in the distance. Kurapika grips Gon's hand while a circle of clear space forms around them. The fact is that his chains make it almost impossible for the Spiders to resist him. This is why they travel in groups, with bodyguards who are not Spiders.

Together, he and Gon will kill them all and retrieve all of his people's eyes. Together, they will find Gon's father. He only wishes he could have taken Gon to Yorknew after Netero died in that chimera ant fiasco. Ging had been there, and there he and Gon were, stuck halfway around the world, chasing down a lead under such deep cover they didn't even know about the whole thing until it was over.

The police arrive, lights flashing and sirens wailing, and Kurapika pulls out his Hunter license as they approach. None of the Spiders have stopped them yet. None of them will. Not while Gon and Kurapika are together.

Next target? Shalnark. Kurapika lets out a long sigh as Gon charms the police, lifting the back of Feitan's shirt to show his Spider tattoo. He finds himself, not for the first time and certainly not for the last, very happy to have taken the boat that stopped in at Whale Island three... nearly four years ago.

+----+

"This guy is a real motherfucker," Killua notes dully as he looks at the file he's been handed. His client is not a soulmate. Leorio Paladiknight, doctor at large, smiles at him and nods. 

"That's why I want him dead. You can do it, right?" The challenging look in the older man's eyes is almost too much. Killua reminds himself that he is only sixteen, and he cannot simply bank on his family's reputation being attached to him, especially with a Hunter.

Killua sets down the file. "Obviously I can. I'm a Zoldyck, aren't I? I'm the one who brought down Chrollo Lucilfer, aren't I?" He leans back in his seat. "But I hear you're friends with the team that's been taking down the Spiders like they're nothing. Why do you want me?"

Leorio sighs. "I want this done subtlely, and I don't want anyone else dead. He's a pharmaceutical exec, not a warlord. You kill him, you leave his bodyguards, everyone gets the message. Those two don't take risks. This bastard's guards would die, too. Justice has to be targeted, right?"

Killua nods. "It will be." 

Leorio smiles, and Killua steps out. He has tucked his gloves into his back pocket, and there they stay as he moves. He will board a flight to Pichinta City. It's going to be a long trip, on a big airship. He has no desire to learn that this wealthy man is his soulmate, and so he does not plan to touch him. Instead, he will defy his family by allowing his fellow passengers to touch him. Only an assassin will satisfy his father, a deadly woman he can pass along the steely Soulgift with. His children must be True Zoldycks. It is ridiculous nonsense, and he hates it. Not to mention that, by now, he knows he will never Soultouch to a woman. Perhaps to a transgendered man, but even that is unlikely. He goes in for a particular type: male, cisgendered, strong, dangerous, a little exotic, a lot competitive.

Killua could swear he nearly Soultouched when he met Zushi last year, when they collapsed into bed together with Killua's skin buzzing mildly at the electric touch of his new lover. He hasn't seen his on-again-off-again boyfriend for three months, though, and it sounds as though Zushi may be interested in a girl. Killua can't fault him. An assassin who cannot show him to his family is not what Zushi deserves. Killua firmly believes that Zushi deserves the world.

Zushi has told him, several times, that with as far apart as they must be so often, it is okay for Killua to play around with other boys. 

Killua thrills privately at every touch on his bare shoulders as he boards the airship. This part of the world is one where it is customary to touch the shoulder or the jaw of everyone you pass. He brushes slender, dangerous fingers over exposed skin, fleeting contact awaiting the rush of resonant, radiating pain his father and grandfather and great grandfather have described. He pauses when, up ahead of him, there is a gasp, and a man and woman face each other, faces growing red with a rising fever. As they collapse into Soultouch Sickness, helping hands take them to the side and staff sorts out their destinations and contact information. 

Killua Soultouches no one on the trip, but does have a romp with an older teen in a utility closet, both of them emerging rumpled and everyone obviously knowing what they were up to. The older boy blows him a kiss, and Killua blushes as they get off the airship. Illumi would be furious, and Killua takes a grim satisfaction in that. 

He feels no particular emotions when he makes the kill a week later. He has vowed to choose targets who have done wrong. People who are abusive, exploiters, killers, reckless vigilantes.

In a way, he knows he is a part of that last category. It is certainly the type of target he is most likely to touch willingly. He recalls the sting of disappointment that Chrollo Lucilfer was not his soulmate. 

When Killua emerges from his victim's bedroom, leaving behind a headless corpse and a pool of blood, the bodyguards are running to attack him. They stop when they see him walking calmly out, gloved hands nearly bloodless. He strips off his left glove and holds up his hand. "Your employer is dead," he tells them bluntly. "I left a note explaining why." He holds out his hand. The Zoldyck name is whispered among the bodyguards, and they touch his hand, one at a time, each registering disappointment, but not surprise.

No one, after all, should expect to be worthy of a Zoldyck.

+----+

Ging stares at his son, his eyes wide. "I wasn't picturing the stripes. Your mother didn't know what her Soulgift was."

Gon shakes his head. "That's all you have to say?" There is a yawning disappointment to that, as though the man who led him on a wild chase through the corners of the world should have given him profound wisdom. Instead, he is a scruffy vagabond with dreamer's eyes and a drab style. He has avoided Gon for too long, and this anticlimax is like a punch to the gut.

"Is that your soulmate?" Ging asks, instead of responding. His eyes flick towards Kurapika, assessing and dismissing all at once. He does not look unimpressed. He would have to look like he cares to look unimpressed.

"His name is Kurapika." Gon reaches back, and Kurapika takes his hand. "We met on the way to the Hunter Exam. He beat Greed Island with me."

Ging nods. "Flying would help. How did Greed Island go?"

Gon bites back his rising despair. This is not a bonding experience. He feels as though he is catching up with a cashier he sees regularly at the grocery store, not meeting the man who has shaped most of his life. "There was a man who had nearly all the rare item cards. I had to kill him. It wasn't too hard, but Kurapika got pretty hurt going after Patch of Shore. Razor was pretty tough. I mean, Hisoka helped with that, but it was hard."

Ging brightens at the mention of Razor. "How's Razor doing?"

Gon's anger rises up at that, and he can feel Kurapika's grip on his hand tighten. Ging is nearly apathetic about his own son, but brightly anticipates news of a criminal he has imprisoned on an island. He knows Razor was a friend to his father, but this is still a blow to his ego.

"If you care more about Razor than about me, why did you have me? Was I an accident?"

Ging blinks, then he laughs. "No. You were on purpose. Your mother wanted to have a baby, I wanted to see if my child would be like me."

"Why didn't you stay with him, then?" Kurapika asks.

Ging rolls his eyes. "I had to keep going," he insists.

Two or three years ago, Gon would have understood. Today, he understands, but is terribly sad at the dismissal in Ging's words. When he looks into his soulmate's eyes and sees they have turned red, he does not hesitate. 

Gon created his Jajanken when he was first learning nen. Sometimes it is useful, but he has learned a great deal about his father's reputation and powers. He goes in, instead, like lightning, pinpoint strikes that draw miniscule grunts of shocked agony from Ging's lips. Gon's hair whips in an intangible wind, and Kurapika joins in without hesitation. 

It is not an easy fight. In point of fact, it is only by the barest of margins that Gon wins, but there is his father, on the floor at his feet, after three minutes of brutal, terrifying combat. He has fought to the last. Normally, when someone forces Gon to fight that hard, he has little choice about killing them. Either they die, or he does. This time, Ging has averted every killing blow. Gon cocks back his fist, preparing to destroy his father. It is his choice, and he wants, somewhere deep inside, to murder this man.

But he won't. He pulverizes Ging's right leg and steps back. Without Kurapika, that fight would have killed Gon. Without Gon, it would have killed Kurapika. As blood pools around his father, Gon leans into Kurapika and shudders. They leave the unconscious man and go back to their hotel. 

It occurs to Gon that it is slightly strange that he loses his virginity the same day he cripples his father. He curls into Kurapika afterwards and cries. The naivety of youth, that once insisted Ging must have found something more marvelous than any love of family or friends, is quashed by experience and bitter resentment. He does not need Ging, and he weeps at the loss of that hope, of that excitement that there must be something greater than love that his father has found.

Ging Freecss is a withered husk of aimless apathy. Gon will no longer idolize him. Leorio is more a father to him than Ging could ever have been.

When they hear the next day that Ging survived, Gon finds he doesn't care. He boards an airship with Kurapika. 

Three weeks later, Ging recommends them as examiners for the next Hunter Exam. Gon accepts. Kurapika joins him.


	4. Soul x Touches x and x Love x Making

Kurapika stares at the crop of examinees. It is strange, to think that he was one of them, not so long ago. Gon devised the setting, and Kurapika the test. They are the third examiners to face this group, and the field has shrunk significantly. Kurapika counts thirty-three, a healthy number made more impressive by the fact that he is confident seven of them already know how to use nen. A pair in the back are obviously a couple, one of them a buff brunette with a modest aura, and the other a monstrous aura wrapped around a slim, lethally fast platinum blond so pale he seems nearly ethereal. Kurapika reflects that this one, whose name tag reads, boldly, "1," is probably the Zoldyck who is rumored to be taking the exam this time.

Gon has expressed a desire to test himself in combat against the Zoldyck, but Cheadle expressly forbade it, and so Gon will not get to play. Privately, Kurapika suspects this is good for Gon. He has only encountered a very few auras more powerful than his soulmate's is. Number one may be one of them. He folds his wings up and drops out of the sky, landing in front of the little crowd. He gestures to the World Tree behind his back. 

"Welcome to the World Tree," he says. "My partner is climbing down right now. I know you've already had a test of endurance and a test of intellect. Today, we're testing your perceptions." A loud boom behind him signals Gon's arrival on the ground. Kurapika glances over to see Gon approaching with what must be thirty or forty tons of branch balanced on his shoulder. He is liberally dusted with wood dust and chunks of bark. He sets down the branch. The earth rumbles, and Gon hurries up next to Kurapika, bussing a light kiss to his cheek.

"The World Tree is actually a sapling," Gon explains, "and it just finished a growth cycle about fifteen years ago. There are forty branches that need to be trimmed off. They're all about that big. Where it comes from, that would happen when giant birds pulled them off to make nests, but the biggest bird that comes here is too small. If we don't break off the branches, they'll fall on their own and destroy the whole town in the next few years." He smiles, just a little sinister.

"Some of you are strong enough to break off one of those branches. It takes a lot, but you can do it. Some of you aren't strong enough to climb that high." Kurapika directs his eyes to a young man who has already been injured during the exam and likely won't make it through this round. "The wood up there is as hard and strong as iron. If you can break it, it probably had to go."

"But that's not the hard part," Gon says, sort of perversely delighted. He turns towards the branch and points to where a grub the size of a car is crawling out of it. "Those will try to kill you. They're kinda fun to fight. We're going to go up, break off the branches, and then get all the grubs out. Like this."

He returns to the branch and, in a series of quick strikes, breaks it up at key points, killing one grub with each blow. The branch falls to more manageable pieces. The noise is deafening. Once the thunder of Gon's absurd power is past, Kurapika starts speaking again. "If you miss a grub, you're done. If you can't get a branch on your own, you're done. If you die, obviously, you're done. Everyone understand?"

There are nods all around. Gon calls out, "good! You have twelve hours. Go."

The examinees start running towards the enormous tree. Gon watches them go. He sidles up next to Kurapika. "The Zoldyck is that skinny blond, right?"

Kurapika shrugs. "Probably. You know how Morel works. He wouldn't tell me a damn thing. You know how many of these people are going to die?"

Gon shrugs. "Maybe ten. I think a couple of them could survive falling. Did you see the girl in the gi?"

Kurapika nods tightly. The girl in the gi is currently bounding up the stairs, well behind the probable Zoldyck and his boyfriend, who lead the pack without looking like they're even trying. "Why do you suppose a Zoldyck is taking the exam?"

Gon shrugs. "The same reason as the last time. He needs a license to get someplace to kill someone. Wish we could take him down."

Kurapika rolls his eyes. "He's a professional killer."

"So are we," Gon points out. "Only he does it for money. We do it for a real reason."

+----+

Killua kicks off the leaf below him, bounds up to the next foothold, and glances down to where Zushi is climbing with hands and feet instead of leaps and bounds. He waits for his sometimes-lover until Zushi catches up and makes his next point in their conversation. "I'm just not sure why it matters. You're literally an assassin. Why do you care if you're allowed in the country where you're going to murder someone?"

Killua darts a look, enhanced by nen, to where Gon Freecss and Kurapika Kurta are following their progress up the tree. Freecss turns to speak to his soulmate. Killua can feel the Hunter's aura from here if he tries very, very hard. He could feel it earlier, focused on him. Freecss wants to pick a fight. That makes sense, given that he has a reputation for being to vigilantes what a shark is to a barracuda. Gon Freecss has gone out of his way to make himself a notorious apex predator. 

Honestly, if he weren't also infamously brutal and uncompromising, Killua would kind of like that. 

"Because it's easier." Killua switches to climbing hand-and-foot like Zushi. "If you have to cross a river, and there's a bridge, you're going to take the bridge if you can, right? The Hunter's License will get me places legally I'd have to sneak or break into otherwise."

Zushi nods. "I guess. Hey, is that one of the branches?"

Killua strikes the tree hard with one foot. The branch Zushi pointed out trembles, and he nods, throwing himself abruptly towards it. The feel of it is nearly the same as the trunk of the massive tree. It seems almost more solid than the ground. Objects on this scale are difficult to think of as changing, living things. Killua contemplates for a moment whether or not he could kill the tree if he had to. Doing so would probably destroy several entire countries. Zushi passes him a few minutes later, heading towards another branch in need of trimming. 

Killua has to admit to being impressed with this test. A few years ago, it would have stretched his abilities to the limits. Below him, there is a scream as someone falls from the tree. He ignores their misfortune and assesses the branch below him. There are thirteen grubs. Part of this test is obviously figuring out how to break off the branches, and how to keep them from killing anyone on the ground. The proper technique is obvious. He considers doing it by brute force, but if someone else tries and fails, not only will they die, but people who didn't sign up for this danger will die as well. 

It takes a few minutes to climb inside of the branch and hit the right places, do the right damage. It creaks and falls away, and Killua lowers it exactly the right way. Zushi is only a few minutes behind him. Killua kills off the grubs on the way down, since the descent takes several minutes and would be very dull otherwise. 

Killua finds himself a little disappointed that he doesn't get to speak to Freecss, but the green-clad Hunter is off preventing a branch from killing dozens after it was dislodged by someone who is no longer stupid largely because they are now dead. Instead, Kurapika Kurta congratulates him with a handshake. 

Killua _feels_ how close it comes to being a Soultouch. Kurta's eyes widen at the little tingle of whatever sensation a Touch brings him, but it is clearly a feeble echo of what could be, and the Hunter has a soulmate already. Killua knows damn well that doesn't mean anything when it's a real Soultouch. When two spirits resonate with each other, it's a simple fact that they do, and if one of them already has a soulmate, that changes nothing. He's met triads, and once, a set of five soulmates, whose resonances were complex and not all completely mutual, but they all worked together well enough. He and Kurta nearly Soultouch, but that is not enough. Killua is a killer for hire. A criminal. Kurapika hunts criminals for vengeance. His soulmate hunts criminals for sport. If there was something to pursue, Killua would chase it, but this bond is not enough.

"Close, but not close enough," Killua quips.

Kurapika nods mutely. He is probably going to tell his partner all about it later. Killua finds he doesn't particularly care. Zushi is a more suitable target for his passions.

+----+

"It happened to me once before," Kurapika says as Gon nestles in under his wings, shamelessly enjoying the brush of feathers against his skin. Gon nips gently at the skin of Kurapika's back, pressing a smile to his lover as Kurapika lets out a not-totally-unhappy noise of protest. "There was a boy I met the first time I was out of the village. Just brushing fingers, and it felt cold all over for a moment, but not for long, and not like when you and I touched that first time."

Gon rolls onto his back, looking up at the light filtering through Kurapika's feathers. He can hear the engines of their airship buzzing-something is wrong with one of them, and it stutters every fifth cycle-and the conversations around them, elsewhere on the airship, and a couple making love a few compartments down. Somewhere onboard, someone is cooking, rice, and beans, and some sort of poultry.

He considers for a few moments, as he has learned to do with long, arduous experience.

"It's a good thing he's not your soulmate, though," Gon says, finally. "He's an assassin. If he wasn't taking the exam, I'd take him out."

"He goes after evil people," Kurapika points out, and it sounds reasonable, but...

"He should leave that to people who aren't doing it for money." Gon feels a little bullheaded about this. He has killed, has taken the lives of three hundred and seven people, and he has accepted no money whatsoever for their deaths. When there was a bounty, he has given it to the victims of his victims, because he is not an assassin. Kurapika does the same. They are killers, but they are killers for a good reason.

"I'm not saying what he does is right. The whole Zoldyck family is... twisted." Kurapika sighs gently. "I'm just saying he's probably as good as they get."

Gon shakes his head. "That's not good enough. He still kills people just because someone hands him money."

Kurapika disagrees with Gon most often on topics like this. Morality is about why, not just how or what. Gon used to think his father was good because he chose to follow a greater cause than childrearing. He changed his mind when he realized Ging was only being selfish. Kurapika heard _what_ Ging had done and always condemned him. 

It's true that there are times when why is overwhelmed by what or how. Buying peace with millions of lives, for instance, is wrong. What was done to the Chimera Ants was hideous and wrong, too, even though it was the destruction of a grave threat to save the world. But Gon knows that why is usually very important.

He snuggles up to Kurapika a little more, and adds, "if he was willing to kill them when nobody was paying, that would be okay, but he's not."

Kurapika runs a hand through Gon's hair, and Gon shudders like he always does at the amplified sensation. It's nothing next to the deep warmth of his first touch with Kurapika, but nothing ever will be unless he meets another soulmate. "You're a little twisted, too," Kurapika says. "I bet you'd get along with him if you didn't think he ought to die."

Gon shrugs. "I just think he needs to be stopped. That only means death because he's too powerful to put in prison."

Somewhere below Gon, probably with two floors between them, judging by the sound, Killua Zoldyck laughs. Gon listens briefly as the assassin speaks, but the intervening distance and solid surfaces make it indistinct. He could smell the other man with Zoldyck, knows they are a couple, and is almost unsurprised to hear what almost happened with him and Kurapika. 

Kurapika is drawn to powerful men and determination.

Zoldyck and his lover will both pass the Hunter exam. That much is certain.

Gon is actually a little eager to fight Zoldyck one day. He's likely enough to have to, and it will be one hell of a fight if he does.

Maybe it will even be soon. After all, the Spiders can't last much longer, and Kurapika has nearly finished gathering his people's eyes.

Gon draws Kurapika down onto the bed, and Kurapika's wings flare and struggle for a moment before Gon is straddling him. He wants to stop thinking about death and punishment, and the best way he knows to do that involves a lot less clothing. He gets to work.


	5. First x Meetings x and x Broken x Windows

Kurapika lets himself be carried away, just this once. Shalnark lies dead at his feet, the last of the Phantom Troupe is gone, and Gon is radiant, splashed with blood and positively glowing with feral energy. It was barely a fight, in the end. There are those who can outspeed them, but none were members of the Phantom Troupe. He thinks back to meeting that softhearted thug, Knuckle. Knuckle had been surprised at the way Kurapika and Gon worked together. He expected them both to want to protect the other from the world, but what he didn't realize, what nobody ever really got, is that this is what they both see in the other.

Gon is unbelievably fast, quiet and dangerous and merciless. Kurapika watches him every day and smiles because he knows that what he is watching is _his_ in a way that it has never been anyone else's. He laughed when he first heard the phrase "nature, red in tooth and claw" because he could just as easily substitute Gon for nature. Gon has all the savagery and majesty of a prowling tiger or a charging elephant, and it is beautiful.

Gon, in this moment, is a specter of death, the very image of remorseless power.

Kurapika loves it. What's more, he knows how Gon sees him. Kurapika comes from above like a meteorite, moves with grace and lazy precision that serve as a perfect counterpoint to his lover's brutal power. Gon watched him grow from a warrior child to a full-fledged Hunter and never once believed Kurapika was anything but perfect in his violence. This is the truth of Gon, ultimately: that he respects ability, even the abilities of the wicked. He condemns those who do wrong in his eyes, and frequently goes so far as to kill them, but he never fails to give them whatever honor they are due.

"That's three hundred and seventy three," Gon says, and Kurapika blinks. When he simply gives his soulmate a puzzled look, Gon catches on and explains further. "I've killed that many people. That's how many it took before we took down the Phantoms. I mean, they weren't all for taking down the Phantoms. That was only a hundred and nineteen, but I couldn't have killed all of them if I hadn't learned from killing some of them."

Kurapika wonders for a moment if he has led Gon down a terrible path, if it was horribly wrong and sick for him to give his soulmate this life of death and vengeance. But Gon is smiling as he wipes off the blood from his face with the corner of his jacket, only making a face when he realizes what he's done. "It's gonna be stained!" he cries out in dismay.

"Gon, the entire left side of it is already soaked. It was gonna be stained anyway." Kurapika flicks a wing at Gon and the breeze ruffles his hair.

Gon looks down at his jacket and squeaks sadly. "I _liked_ this jacket!"

"You have ten of them," Kurapika points out reasonably. He has learned a few useful things to Conjure, and he pulls a damp cloth from thin air to wipe down his lover a little better than Gon has managed. 

"I know, but this is the one I was wearing the night you kissed me the first time. It has a little rip in the left pocket, see." He holds up the corner of the jacket, and there is, in fact, a small tear, not quite hidden by the melange of blood soaking into it. There is the contents of at least three men's arteries on Gon's jacket, and many would be horrified by this, but Kurapika is turned on. Not by the death, or the violence or gore, but by the way that Gon moves through them. His soulmate is free of the concerns that would make others balk at this life. That is what Kurapika needs. Gon lives in the moment, so completely that the ethics of the moment overpower the horror of the past and the trepidation of the future. 

To anyone else, what has just happened would be a scene of unforgettable brutality. To Gon, it is the part that comes between determination and satisfaction. That he comes out of it dripping with the blood of an offender is not an issue to him. It is barely a curiosity. Gon does not waste time moralizing or worrying over whether it is right o be the executioner of these guilty parties. He simply does what must be done. 

Gon is _life,_ where the equivocators and hesitants are merely existence. 

It is all Kurapika could ever have wanted.

+----+

Killua stares at the photograph again. 

Somehow, he didn't expect it to be the tiger-striped one he would have to kill. He considered what it would be like, but he doubted it would happen.

Alluka asked him about it when he told her about the almost-Soultouch with Kurta. He told her he expected Kurta was an amoral killer rather than a remorse-tortured hunter. He is willing to accept the deaths he caused before he stood up to his family. He knows that he killed simply because he was ordered to before he truly thought about it. 

It tears him up. He can kill with neither passion nor pity, but it is the spark of regret that makes him human, and he suspected that humanity was missing from Kurapika Kurta.

He did not expect it to be gone from Gon Freecss instead. Or perhaps, from Gon Freecss as well. 

The photograph is of his target, laughing, drenched in the blood of no less than seven men. Gon Freecss is called The Butcher by some criminal circles. He takes no pity, pulls no punch. He takes hostages and lies and cheats, he calls in his love like a lightningstroke from the air, he does not ask questions, does not arrest, does not offer quarter or sympathy or anything but death and misery.

Gon Freecss is a brute and a destroyer.

Killua is not certain he could kill both at once. He is unbreakably positive he could kill Kurapika Kurta. The Hunter is up for consideration as a Zodiac because he is brilliant, not because he is strong. By far the more deadly of the two is Freecss, who is rumored to have fought a Chimera Ant when he was thirteen, to have reached the peak of Heavens' Arena, to have refined the art of being an Enhancer beyond its normal limits.

Killua is not certain he can kill this target. He recalls when Illumi would have told him to flee if he was uncertain.

He will not. He fights for what is right, not for what is easy.

Killua puts away the picture and launches himself. Freecss is alone, his soulmate off on duty with the Zodiacs. His back is to the thirtieth-floor window, he is a prime target, and Killua has been completely silent, his Zetsu flawless.

Gon Freecss turns the instant Killua launches himself through the air, and he hefts the chair he has been sitting in and throws it.

Killua is moving at his top speed. He is nearly beating the miniscule sounds of his own movement to the window. But Freecss has heard him coming and reacted with such blinding speed that the chair disintegrates as he throws it, emerging from the window as a mass of cushions and disconnected wood, which halts Killua's momentum and plunges down barely more helpless to change its trajectory than he.

Gon is not faster than Killua. Not even close. Few things in this world are. But he is fast enough. A shower of glass shards rain down around him, and he realizes that by attacking when he didn't actually have the element of surprise, he has doomed himself.

Gon Freecss will kill him. The can be no doubt about it. He is in the grip of gravity and physics, and while he could hit the ground and be a mile away before anyone knows, he cannot sufficiently change his fall to reach the ground untouched. 

Freecss bursts through a ruined cushion even as Killua realizes his life is over. The Hunter has launched himself down and his hands close around Killua's throat.

It is like Killua has been hooked up to a high-tension power line.

+----+

An almost orgasmic warmth ripples out from Gon's hands as they clench around the assassin, and he blinks as he sees who he has struck. Killua Zoldyck is pale, ghostly, and beautiful, just as he was at the Hunter Exam two years ago. The heat and pleasure that race through his body make him hesitate, and then he twists. They are thirty stories up, falling and locked together, and although Gon isn't in love, his every cell and feeling is still focused. This man must not be harmed, and so Gon has interposed himself to take the blow from the ground so they will both be okay.

He is still curious. He wants to know if he can win.

He has the raw power to kill the Zoldyck, he could probably squeeze the life out of him in an instant, but he isn't yet positive.

"Was I about to kill you?" he asks, the words tumbling from his lips and nearly gone in the flurry of fibers and exploded furniture around them. The fever is already beginning, and he is not completely sure he will be able to drag Zoldyck back from the street after they have landed.

The assassin nods. "Oh yeah. I was dead."

Gon hits the ground and absorbs the blow. Nothing breaks, he barely bruises from it, but he still feels the pain, rolling over several times until they come to rest with him on top of Zoldyck.

"I'm Killua," the other man says breathlessly.

Gon stands. He is nauseated and beginning to feel very cold. Killua is shivering and staring. "I know," Gon says.

"You were too dangerous to touch," Killua says through shudders as Gon helps him up. They are both rapidly approaching a height of misery most people will never actually feel. They should have lost consciousness by now, but they are fighters, and experienced, and more powerful than anyone Gon knows.

Gon shrugs. "I probably would have killed you on sight."

Killua smirks. "You would have tried." He shakes, a violent convulsion. "Can I stay in your room?"

Gon nods. They make their trembling way back to the room and collapse into Gon's bed together. This is how Gon learns that Killua refuses to give in to his body. Killua can barely stand by the time they are there, but he speaks, for hours, in a tremulous voice, wracked with pain. Gon offers to compete with him through the delirium, to see who will stay conscious for longer, and around when Killua tells him about how he breaks the rule his family has set sometimes just in case he is about to kill a soulmate, Gon realizes that this is someone he can lose to, even if he is trying his best. He slips into darkness and silence and fever dreams.

He is not certain that he is correct about Killua turning to burnished silver before his eyes. He hopes that if that is what happened, his eyes stay the way they are, because they were such a pretty blue, and being with Kurapika for so long has left Gon a little obsessed with eyes.


	6. Soul x Mates

Kurapika stares at the scattered remains of a chair on the street outside the hotel. Chunks of wood, a stuffed interior, scraps of fabric, all spread liberally around the whole block. It is one of the hotel chairs, and glass sparkles brokenly across the whole street with it. He looks up and is unsurprised to find that the window of his and Gon's room is broken. People try to kill him and Gon sometimes. They are unaware that Gon can hear them coming no matter how silent they are. Efforts to be quiet start too close. Gon has heard the crunch of gravel on rooftops and the assembling of rifles almost a mile away and all sorts of things. Kurapika is unconcerned. He steps into the lobby and ignores the way the clerk tries to get his attention. "Someone tried to kill your soulmate" is an old tune, and he knows it by heart.

The high-rise hotel has roomy elevators, and he hums contentedly along with the music. He would have brought Gon a sorry-someone-tried-to-kill-you-again pastry if Gon had called, but his soulmate does not always call over these things, if the attack was executed poorly enough. Having to throw a chair out the window usually qualifies for a call, but not always. He will scold Gon when he gets in. Gon will be sitting in a nice replacement chair and looking apologetic about the breeze, green stripes on his skin and permanent smile on his face, green hair all wild as Kurapika strokes his shoulder or his face and chides him gently and teasingly.

He opens the door and is surprised to find that the handle has been dented by too-strong fingers, deformed under enormous pressure.

Gon is not in the new chair, although it is there. The window shades flutter from the slight breeze, and Kurapika steps in, one cautious step at a time. What he sees takes his breath away. New stripes have spread across Gon's body, deep purple to match the green. He sleeps peacefully, arms wrapped around the other man in the bed.

It takes a moment to identify the statue carved out of titanium on the bed. Killua Zoldyck's features have been frozen in mercury, his hair turned to threads of the finest silver, his whole body reflective and more beautiful than Kurapika would have ever thought possible. Gon snores softly, completely at peace, and Kurapika approaches. Killua's hands are wrapped around Gon, chrome sculptures he could never have imagined being alive if he hadn't seen it himself.

"They turn to steel," he mouths, afraid to disturb this scene because it is too lovely, too precious. He reaches out, and his fingers brush against Killua's hand. Again, he feels the icy cold, and again, it is not a Soultouch, but it is close, so very close, closer than it was before. The assassin's skin is warm once the sensation fades, smooth, but with the texture of skin, not of metal. He knows better than to think this is it. The Zoldyck Gift is infamous. Even without nen, Killua has become bulletproof. He is a silvered god.

Killua's eyes open, and they are not carved out of steel. They are deep and pretty and blue.

"Oh," he says, sitting up slightly. "I guess I got you in the deal, too."

Kurapika sits down on the bed. "Yeah. It's okay. Go back to sleep. I'll get some food. Can you tell him I was here if he wakes up?"

Killua looks at Gon, evidently puzzled that Kurapika hasn't woken him already. Kurapika smiles gently. "I don't wake him up. He knows my voice. My voice is safe."

Gon grumbles and reaches up to pull Killua back into his embrace.

Kurapika steps to the window and flies out to get something from the fast food place down the road. They will have to talk this out, but it can wait.

+----+

Gon persuades Killua to spar with him before he even approaches asking to kiss him. They are on the way back to Kukuroo Mountain, where they will retrieve Alluka and Killua's family might try to kill their wayward son or might simply disown him, when Gon turns to him and, with a bright smile, challenges him to a fight.

It goes quickly. Killua breaks one of Gon's arms, and Gon breaks three of Killua's ribs and draws blood, and Killua has never had more fun in his life, and realizes that he is already helplessly in love as they sit there under Kurapika's watchful eyes, panting and holding injuries they are already healing with nen.

Kurapika is another matter. Killua recalls the sensation of touching him, the quiet thrill of knowing what they could become to each other, as he turns to look at the laughing, winged man. Some souls grow and change until they resonate together. It's rare, but it happens, and it might not happen to them, but it might, and Killua finds he doesn't mind that. He sits up, ignoring the stab of pain from his side, and Gon smiles at him.

"You're fun, Killua," Gon says.

Killua rolls his eyes. "Most people wouldn't want to beat up their soulmate."

Gon nods. "I know, but I _lost!_ I had to know if I would win, and I didn't, so that means we have to fight again when we're feeling better."

Killua kisses him. He is nearly as surprised by the gesture as Gon is. But Gon responds happily, and they hold each other and kiss for a while before Kurapika tells them they are about to miss their flight, and Killua watches as Gon and Kurapika talk together. 

He is in love with Gon Freecss, and that means that he will have to figure out what he assumed about the man and what he was wrong about. That's going to be half the fun. The other half, he thinks, will be seeing how he and Gon and Kurapika work as a unit.

When they sit down on their flight, in a little room in the airship, he reaches out to Kurapika while Gon sets off to the restroom. A light electric buzz passes across his glimmering skin at the touch.

"What?" Kurapika asks.

Killua sucks in a deep breath. He has already told them about Zushi, and they agree that if he loves Zushi, he shouldn't let them stop him. They have talked about what they will do with Alluka, and how they will react to anything his family might do, and nearly every contingency has been planned, but there is one question he must ask Kurapika before he is satisfied.

"I have to try something," Killua confesses, and he leans up to kiss Kurapika.

It is just as electric as touching Gon had been, but it is not until Gon returns and laughs and joins in that the fever starts again.

Gon tucks them both into bed and takes care of them, and because Killua knows he is safe, he sleeps through the whole fever this time.

+----+

Alluka looks at her brother and at his soulmates. She cowered in the back while they all fought with the other Zoldycks, but Gon can't help smiling at her when it's over.

Illumi, Killua's oldest brother, had tried to take Alluka away from Killua, but there is no mercy in Killua for Illumi, and Killua has one less brother now and his point is made. They leave Kukuroo Mountain behind, and Killua holds Gon's hand, and Gon holds Alluka's and Alluka holds Kurapika's.

Gon decides they will go to Whale Island. It is the best place of peace he has ever known, and he will need peace if he is to learn a new life with his strange, perfect new family.


End file.
